First Ward Grand Rapids Commissioner Dave Shaffer, left, said the city cannot afford pay raises recommended through an employee-evaluation process led by Second Ward Commissioner Rosalynn Bliss. He wants commissioners to address any change in salary within the context of total employee compensation.MLive.com File

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Salary increases for the city manager and two other appointed officials got City Commission approval, with two votes in opposition.

First Ward Commissioner Dave Shaffer and Third Ward Commissioner Elias Lumpkins on Tuesday, Jan. 8, opposed 2-percent annual pay raises for the following employees: City Manager Greg Sundstrom, from $143,988 to $146,868; City Attorney Catherine Mish, from $115,689 to $118,003; City Treasurer Al Mooney, from $110,278 to $112,484.

“That just doesn’t seem to be where we are right now (financially as a city),” Shaffer said. “I just don’t know that I’m ready and prepared to do that right now given the financial forecast we have.”

The raises stem from annual City Commission evaluations of four appointed officials. The commission granted a 1-year contract extension to City Clerk Lauri Parks, who was criticized for long voting lines on Election Day, but her salary will remain at $95,043.

Shaffer, who was absent from recent closed-door meetings when the employee evaluations were reviewed, said the city should continue to talk about salaries in the context of overall compensation including health insurance, retirement and other employment costs. Grand Rapids in 2012 wrapped up negotiations with several labor unions that included 8.2-percent cuts in overall compensation.

Those contracts start coming up for renewal this year, and Shaffer said 2-percent raises for appointed officials could signal a similar increase for union workers.

“We’ve kind of gone on this ‘We’re all in this together,’ so to piece off one part in salary doesn’t send the best message for us in terms of how we’re going to deal with our budget,” Shaffer said.

Lumpkins referenced the omission of a raise for Parks and stated that the commission should begin its evaluation process earlier in the year.

“The long lines that we had in Grand Rapids were not unusual (across the country),” he said. “That’s not an excuse, but we have to look at the whole picture” such as an increase in voter registrations that Parks has spearheaded.

Voting in favor of the raises were Mayor George Heartwell, First Ward Commissioner Walt Gutowski, Second Ward commissioners Rosalynn Bliss and Ruth Kelly and Third Ward Commissioner James White. Some of them emphasized that the 2-percent raise for appointed officials is based on merit and does not mean other city employees are in for a similar wage increase.

“I don’t want to leave the impression at all that 2 percent is a norm for the whole city organization. It’s not,” Heartwell said. “Everybody else in the organization gets step increases (in pay based on years of service).

"I don’t want anybody to read this as a signal that we’re going to sit down at the bargaining table and start at 2 percent. It’s not an issue of equity here because there are no step increases (for appointed officials like there are for other city staff).”

Said Bliss: “That 5-percent step increase, I’m sure, would be a lot more welcome than the 2-percent increase we’re talking about. If you look at what our appointed officials have not received because we removed (step increases a few years ago), it’s significant. If we would have left that in (the contracts), every single one of them would be making more money than they are today.”

Bliss for the past several years has headed up the process of evaluating the commission's appointed officials. Heartwell today passed that task to Shaffer and Lumpkins, saying “there is a cost for the nay votes and that is both of you will serve on this committee.”